INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY – A SIMPLE START
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Transcript of INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY – A SIMPLE START
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY – A SIMPLE START
• DOES THEORY MATTER?• WHAT ARE ITS PHILOSOPHICAL &
HISTORICAL ROOTS?• “REALISM” “LIBERALISM/IDEALISM”• PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE• ALL IR TEXTBOOKS HAVE THEORY
CHAPTERS
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to accompany our seminars on International Theory and International Politics
Lost in the maze ??? Send email to [email protected]
WHY THEORY?
• IR THEORIES ARE GENERAL IDEAS ABOUT WORLD AFFAIRS• IDEAS MATTER • THEORIES INFLUENCE POLICIES AND POLITICS• THEORY HELPS US DEAL WITH COMPLEXITY
WHAT THEORIES DO
• DESCRIBE• EXPLAIN• PREDICT• PRESCRIBE
THEORIES ARE NOT LAWS
• THEY REFLECT HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES
• THEY REFLECT THE PERSONAL VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES OF THOSE WHO WRITE THEM
• THEY ARE CONTINUALLY BEING REVISED IN LIGHT OF CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES
BE CRITICAL
• FOR MOST COMPLEX PROBLEMS THERE ARE EASY SOLUTIONS THAT ARE OFTEN WRONG
• COMMON SENSE CAN BE NON SENSE• STATES, LIKE PEOPLE, ACT FOR
MANY REASONS THAT SOMETIMES CONTRADICT
• DIFFICULT CHOICES OFTEN MAKE BAD POLICIES
HOW THEORIES DEVELOP
• THEORIES BEGIN WITH ASSUMPTIONS
• THEORIES OFFER HYPOTHESES • THEORIES HAVE INDEPENDENT AND
DEPENDENT VARIABLES• PRACTICAL EXAMPLES ?
HYPOTHESIS ?• IF WE CONTINUE TO BURN RISING
AMOUNTS OF PETROL THEN THE WORLD’S TEMPERATURE WILL RISE– INDEPENDENT VARIABLE - BURNING FUEL– DEPENDENT VARIABLE - GLOBAL CLIMATE
• SCIENTISTS TEST THEIR THEORIES EMPIRICALLY – MEASURING INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
• SHOW A CAUSE AND EFFECT RELATIONSHIP TO GLOBAL WARMING
CONCEPTS TO KNOW
• PREMISSES• HYPOTHESES• INDEPENDENT/DEPENDENT
VARIABLES • VALIDITY CRITERIA (Refutation vs.
Corroboration)• ACTORS• LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
Three Images or Levels of Analysis of International
Relations
Three Levels of Analysis
International Level (“third image”)
Qualities of the International System
Domestic Level (“second image”)
Qualities of the Political and Economic System
Individual Level (“first image”)Qualities of Individual Leadership
International
Domestic
Individual
Three Images
Kenneth Waltz. 1954. Kenneth Waltz. 1954. Man, the State, and War. What are the causes of war?
First Image: Human nature
Second Image: The State
Third Image: The International System
Does knowledge lead to peace?
Does knowledge imply same preferences?
But...
1st Image: Human Nature
OptimistsOptimists PessimistsPessimists
But...
Incomplete explanation
• People are basically good• Reform, education• Crime and war are deviant
behaviors• Progress is possible, perhaps inevitable
• Human nature is flawed• Passion and egoism are fundamental• Crime and war are normal• Utopian ideals are not achievable
1st Image
• Original Sin: Augustine (354-430)– Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). Moral Man and
Immoral Society (1932)• Thucydides (460-400 B.C.)
– Fear, Power, Honour• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
– Subconscious, repression• Robert Jervis (1976). Perception and
Misperception in World Politics
2nd Image: The State
Institutions
Internal strife
Despotic states
The State
LiberalismLiberalism Reason and progress make the eventual elimination of war possible
Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant ((1724-1804)On Perpetual Peace
•Historical evolution •Technology leads to more brutal wars•States will be compelled to become peaceful
•Republics will be inclined towards peace•Commerce creates incentives to pursue peace•Voluntary association in legal federation of
peaceful states
• The mode of production determines social relations
• Government represents dominant class interests
• Under capitalism– Expanding production leads
to diminishing returns– Search for profits leads to
demand for new markets and investment opportunities
Marxism-Leninism
Conflict among capitalist states
Harmony among socialist states
The State
3rd Image: International anarchy
• Human beings are animals that seek pleasure and survival
• In the state of nature, others are threats, so all are at war
• Life is “nasty, brutish and short”• To transcend anarchy, we
surrender our natural rights to an absolute sovereign in a social contract
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Leviathan (1651)
International anarchy
State of Nature
State of War
Thus, what is a Theory ? More Explanations…
• Theory is "the net which we throw out in order to catch the world – to rationalize, explain, and dominate it."
Karl Popper. Logik der Forschung, 1935: p.26 (The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London:
Routledge Classics 2002, 2003, 2004)
• A good theory should fulfil the following functions: describe, explain and predict (Burchill) – positive idea of
theorizing verify and falsify (Popper) - by confronting accumulated
knowledge with reality• “No matter how many instances of white swans we may have
observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white”.
• Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, op. cit. be internally consistent and coherent
15 mins. Coffee Break !!